Noodles & Company in Support of Stephen

Both Thomas Richard’s Charity and Noodles came together in support of Stephen and his fight with stage 4 neuroblastoma cancer; on June 1, 2017 Noodles and Co. in Troy off Rochester Road held a fundraiser for Stephen in which 50% of all proceeds from dine-in or carry-out orders went directly to his benefit.

STEPHEN’S battle with stage 4 Neuroblastoma

Stephen is a four year old boy with stage 4 Neuroblastoma. In August 2016 his mom noticed a bump on the side of his head. Doctors couldn’t figure out the cause. A month later, Stephen developed a sudden fever and was rushed to the hospital and given a head CT and chest x-ray. It was then his family learned the news about Stephen’s stage 4 Neuroblastoma. The following day Stephen was transferred to Children’s Hospital of Detroit. He spent ten days in the PICU. His first two days were spent undergoing two surgeries; one for the biopsy of his lymph node and the other to put in a special line for his chemo. In that time, he had five MRI’s, and a bone marrow biopsy. He then started his first round of five chemotherapy treatments. Each lasting three to six days just of treatment. Additionally he spent three to seven days in the hospital to recover from the vomiting and other complications. Since the start of this battle, he has been in the ER three times.

When he is not in the hospital, Stephen needs to see the oncologist twice a week to make sure his blood counts are still good, which usually only amounts to a week and a half at home in between hospital stays. Stephen underwent a third surgery after his fifth round of chemotherapy to remove the large tumor in his chest. He had a chest tube put in, and was in the hospital for four days. Now Stephen is having his first of two bone marrow transplants which will put him in the hospital for a minimum of four weeks. His immune system will be wiped out completely and restarted with his own stem cells. He will need to do this a second time within a month. Following that, they will be traveling out of state for the next step of treatment. Instead of traditional radiations, Stephen will be receiving Proton treatment. He will be gone for up to four weeks, living out of a hotel and hospital. Upon returning home, Stephen will need six to eight months of immunotherapy treatment involving more hospital stays.

Stephen is a very strong and special boy. He wants to beat this so that he may pursue his dreams of being either a K9 police officer or a fire fighter. He wants to help others the way that people have been helping him. Stephen, along with his parents and seven year old sister, thank you for your kindness, generosity, love, support, and prayers. They couldn’t do this without you.

Thank you from Mariana Sadowski Hohauser, Jon Hohauser and Thomas Richards Charity. Your donation went to directly helping his family over this overwhelmingly emotional time.

There has also been an overwhelming show of support from first responders K-9 across the country posting photos of the K-9’s on his FB Page Stephen “Strong” these make him smile day in and day out.